The genetic code of nearly every modern apartment block, office tower, and city skyline was sparked by a man who started his career with a self-described horror of architecture. This episode is a deep dive into Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect who declared that a house is "a machine for living in" and then spent fifty years rebuilding the urban world to match.

We trace his beginnings in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Domino concrete frame that freed walls from carrying weight, and the Five Points of a New Architecture: pilotis, roof terraces, the free plan, ribbon windows, and the free facade. We unpack signature works including the Villa Savoye, the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, the Notre-Dame du Haut chapel at Ronchamp, and his master plan for Chandigarh in India. We also confront the d ...